Cosmos DB Dev Environment Supercharged with AI | Sajeetharan Sinnathurai | Azure Cosmos DB Conf 2026

Sajeetharan Sinnathurai (Principal PM, Azure Cosmos DB) walks through a practical, repeatable Azure Cosmos DB development setup and then shows how to improve day-to-day productivity with AI coding assistants (especially for queries, SDK usage, and data modeling).

Full summary based on transcript

Building a solid Cosmos DB development environment

The session focuses on creating a development workflow that supports faster iteration, reliable testing, and fewer production surprises when working with Azure Cosmos DB.

VS Code setup for Cosmos DB work

The presenter covers how to configure Visual Studio Code for Cosmos DB development, including:

• Recommended VS Code configuration
• Essential extensions for working with Azure Cosmos DB

Local development with the Cosmos DB Emulator

The presenter explains how to use the Cosmos DB Emulator for local development, including:

• What the emulator is useful for in a local workflow
• Limitations of the emulator
• When and how to switch from local emulator work to a cloud-based Cosmos DB account

Testing patterns and CI/CD considerations

The session discusses approaches for making Cosmos DB development more reliable through testing and pipeline practices, including:

• Testing patterns that fit Cosmos DB-backed applications
• Integration test considerations
• CI/CD considerations for Cosmos DB solutions

Using AI coding assistants effectively for Cosmos DB

The presenter shows how to “teach” AI coding assistants about your Cosmos DB solution so they can generate more accurate outputs.

Key ideas covered include:

• Using context files to provide the assistant with your schema and domain context
• Prompting techniques to get better results for:
  • Cosmos DB queries
  • Cosmos DB SDK code
  • Data models aligned to your schema

Takeaways

The session aims to leave viewers with:

• A ready-to-use Cosmos DB development setup
• Sample context files for AI assistants
• A repeatable workflow for accelerating Cosmos DB development